SkyWatch Friday: An Apollo Picnic Under Mercurial Skies :-)

I find it nearly impossible to believe that we're on the brink of October's final weekend! Not only because of the month's speedy passage, but also because of its unseasonably balmy weather, more summery than autumnal.

Last Saturday's softly serene sunrise was both lovely and illustrative of our mild and gentle weather lately...

Knowing all too well that despite its delayed arrival wintery weather is inevitable, BW and I have been taking advantage of the beautiful days with bike rides and lots of outings with the dogs, while my friend Pam and I have been logging many miles on long walks, laughingly referring to ourselves as "Lewis and Clark" because of our explorations and adventures (and occasional need for a guide, given our shared lack of any sense of direction!) :-) The three of us even threw together a fun picnic on Tuesday. That morning, Pam and I walked the three miles to Sheridan's quilt shop, then hoofed it another 3/4 mile or so to the library to take another gander at this year's annual Fiber Arts Show entries (yep, post coming) and meet up with BW, who arrived in our car with the picnic supplies. 

It won't surprise those of you who know me well when I tell you that our picnic venue was the cemetery. :-) Not the main municipal cemetery, but the adjacent Bellevue Cemetery, home to a rather mysterious collection of columns from the 1930s. They used to support a wooden pergola which has long since succumbed to the elements that are also taking their toll on the columns. A local historic pamphlet that Pam bought at the library identified the structure-that's-no-longer-a-structure as the romantically pagan "Sun Temple." Despite the fact that our sunny day was morphing into an overcast one, it still made a great spot for a picnic lunch.

But before eating, Pam and BW decided to burn a few extra calories by helping to prop up this lone little puffer cloud… 

Pam gave it a gentle push with her finger so BW could hold it like a serving tray! 

We set up our picnic in the center of the "temple," so were encircled by the columns as we dined on our yummy feast of tempeh salad sandwiches, hummus, carrots, apples, bananas and hibiscus tea. All we were missing were a lyre, our togas, and Apollo...

Oh, wait! Look who showed up! And ate most of the hummus! 

(okay, maybe that was me. LOL)...

After lunch we headed next door to the large municipal cemetery and visited several of the more scenic and interesting sections and historic graves there. At one point, Pam looked up and saw this dragon in the tree above us!...

Though it remained a balmy 77ºF, the weather grew increasingly cloudy and blustery, until the skies to our north looked like this at 6pm...

Though teasing us with the promise of some much-needed rain, it turned out the clouds were just for show (and cemetery ambience). The night remained dry, and the next day was another sunny one. In fact, the lack of clouds has made for fairly boring sunrises this week, at least until yesterday when more nocturnal clouds made for an appropriately pumpkin-colored and picturesque dawn before clearing out later that morning...

For more picturesque skies by day & by night, beneath sunshine & clouds, 

and both autumnal & vernal from both sides of the equator, please visit...

2014 Sheridan Annual Garden Tour, Part 3

Welcome to Part 3 in my 4-part series of this year's Garden Tour!

We toured seven of Sheridan's eight competing gardens on July 19. The finalists, chosen by the local greenhouse that sponsors the tour, competed this year for the most votes from the touring public in two categories. Part 1 and Part 2 featured finalists from the Backyard Garden category, while this post showcases our favorite finalist from the Estate Garden category...

The beautiful English style gardens of Lloyd and Diana enticed us in and entertained us during our visit with enchanting and soothing harp music...

Major bonus points for the lovely touch of a harpist among the roses!

As I was photographing the harpist another woman approached me with a similar camera, and as we were comparing them I noticed her shirt was a perfect match to the pink roses in front of us, so I offered to take her photo with them. But she politely declined - since they were her roses! Turns out she was Diana, delightful co-owner of this slice of paradise, who (she humbly disclosed during our conversation) worked for 20 years as the master gardener at Trail End State Historic Site, whose gorgeous gardens and grounds have appeared in some of my posts, this being my favorite. This explains why her own gardens are so exquisite! During the 22 years she and Lloyd have lived at this property they've planted 300 trees, designed and planted all the gardens (including a large vegetable garden), built all the sheds, cupolas, gazebos, arbors and fences, and installed all the rock walls. And now that he's "retired," Lloyd has taken up iron work (he built the handsome iron railing on their new deck, which I failed to photograph), and is now growing hops and grapes to use in making spirits. 

I loved many of their decorative touches, including this beautiful Victorian birdhouse…

And this wonderful dragonfly crafted by Lloyd from vintage utensil handles, one of two that I spied hiding in the foliage of their extensive gardens...

Diana designed the gardens to create outdoor rooms and secret gardens. The peekaboo glimpse I got through some tree branches (those dark green blobs in the foreground are leaves) is my favorite of her secret gardens…

I'm convinced that sweet woodland creatures bed down here at night, 

falling asleep to the softly twinkling sound of singing faeries.

My final garden tour post will feature the Estate Garden winner. Stay tuned!

2014 Sheridan Annual Garden Tour, Part 1

2014 Sheridan Annual Garden Tour, Part 2

2014 Sheridan Annual Garden Tour, Part 4

Happy Campers!

I am pleased to report that as both a learning experience and a fun outing, our inaugural camping adventure on Thursday with Girasole, our new little T@B trailer, was a success (though not without a bit of unanticipated excitement!) Naturally I had to record it for posterity. :-)

Here's BW putting the finishing touches on setting up our campsite under the watchful - if somewhat baffled - gaze of the girls...

And here BW conducts a final inspection of our portable dog kennel set-up, which met with everyone's enthusiastic approval...

We bought two of these for the kennel, used a few of the interlocking foam mats we'd purchased to go under their beds, and used an old tarp for a shady shelter. And we hauled all of it (plus more of the mats and our folding camp chairs) on top of the Jeep in our new soft cargo bag. BW's package-car loading days at UPS (memorialized on his water bottle, lol) sure came in handy...

The kennel was very handy for keeping the girls both safe and legal (the park has a leash law) while we were busy and overnight, though they were so very well-behaved (as we knew they would be) that they were quite content to just hang out with us, never wandering off or making a sound, even when other people walked by with their dogs. We camped along the Tongue River (I think; I'll explain later!) at Connor Battlefield State Park in Ranchester, about 20 miles north of Sheridan. It's a small campground, and when we arrived at around 2 that afternoon there were only two other campers there. A few more arrived during the night, but it stayed very quiet. Except for the trains! We didn't realize the tracks were just three blocks away, and trains went by all night long, blowing their whistles with gusto. The only thing that drowned them out was the thunder - I know, look at that cloudless blue sky, right? More on the unpredicted midnight storm coming up. Meanwhile, enjoy our peaceful campsite by day, like we did...

We also all enjoyed our walks around the park. Let me take you on a little tour…

This place wasn't always peaceful. This monument marks the site where an Arapaho village of about 500 inhabitants once stood...

At around 8 in the morning of August 29, 1865, in what is now known as the Battle of the Tongue River (or Connor Battle), the non-belligerent village was attacked by Gen. Patrick Connor, commander of the Powder River Expedition, and about 300 of his soldiers. Most of the young Arapaho men were gone, raiding ponies from the Crow along the Big Horn River. The women, children, and mostly elderly men who were left in the village were caught completely off guard by the attack and the indiscriminate firing by the soldiers, and many were killed, wounded, and captured. After the initial attack, the few able warriors in the village managed to put up an effective defense, retreating 12 miles up Wolf Creek while covering the escape of the surviving women and children. Most of the soldiers remained in the village, looting and burning about 250 lodges, while Connor and 30 or so of his soldiers and Pawnee scouts pursued the retreating Arapaho, who counter-attacked. When all was said and done, Connor claimed to have killed 63 Arapaho, including 35 warriors (the latter number one that historians believe was probably exaggerated), with a loss to himself of five dead and two seriously wounded.

The highly observant among you may have noticed that we happened to be camping there on the 149th anniversary of this tragedy, and its victims were very much on my mind. I agree with what this brief article about "The Connor Battle," states in its final sentence: "The tragic events of the past can be felt in this quiet and contemplative setting." And I take issue with calling an unprovoked attack on non-combatants a "battle." It's worth noting that as the Powder River Expedition began, Connor's orders to his officers were, "You will not receive overtures of peace or submission from Indians, but will attack and kill every male Indian over 12 years of age." (Connor's superiors countermanded this order). It's also worth noting that after this, the Arapaho did become enemies of the US Army (understandably!), attacking a wagon train three days later on Sept 1 and joining forces with the Cheyenne and Lakota (Sioux) in their successful attack on Fort Fetterman the following December.

I think the Arapaho may be continuing to exact a small measure of revenge, in that both times we've visited this park we've been attacked by a cloud of mosquitos whenever we stood before this monument. Didn't matter what time of day it was, and we didn't experience it anywhere else in the park!

All that history of violence and tragedy here stands in stark contrast to the playground that now also marks the spot. It was deserted the entire time we were there and so never disrupted the "quiet and contemplative setting"...

The bison appeared to be made for climbing with all its toeholds and handholds,

while the stagecoach was a unique alternative to typical playground equipment.

On the opposite side of the park is this nifty suspension footbridge that crosses the river (or creek?) to a residential area. The dogs were very brave about crossing it a few times, given that it sways and bounces noticeably!  

Despite the bouncing, the bridge provided a great vantage point for taking the next two photos. I have tried to do my homework on this, I really have - but I still don't know if this waterway, which wends its way around three sides of the park, is the Tongue River or Wolf Creek. Wolf Creek is a tributary of the Tongue River and the road that runs along this portion of the river/creek is "Wolf Creek Road." The river/creek is identified on various maps of the town and park as the Tongue River, Wolf Creek, and Five-Mile Creek (where'd that one come from?!) I'm guessing the portion beside our campsite where the water flows more rapidly is the Tongue River, and this more sedate portion opposite is Wolf Creek, but that's the best I can do. It's pretty, whatever it's called, especially with the evening sun shining on it and the Big Horn Mountains in the distance...

The arrow is pointing to our campsite and "outfit," as they call a truck or a tow vehicle + trailer-of-any-kind combination in these parts...

While we relaxed at our campsite that evening, I noticed a white church steeple, nicely illuminated by the evening sun in the distance on the other side of the river, and took this photo of it with my telephoto lens...

Not long after, when we took the girls for another stroll across the suspension bridge to explore the surrounding neighborhoods, we came upon the church, which turned out to have a Mini-Me! lol...

As dusk fell, we went inside and prepared our first meal in Girasole - a complex affair that we slaved over for hours! ;-)~ We've enjoyed various Dr. McDougall soups at home for years and are happy that they, along with his delicious oatmeal, are also perfect for camping (just add hot water)! BW had snagged the chocolate goodies at the health food store the day before, but the beer was a spontaneous purchase. We've been told by several veteran RV campers that some people engage in this activity in order to socialize (so our main goal being to get away from people might prove tricky!), and we'd also heard that the colorful T@Bs are people magnets. Sure enough, we'd barely arrived and were setting up the dog kennel when a man from one of the two other campers in the park strolled over to visit and ask about our T@B, Scotch on the rocks in hand. He was joined later by his wife, who we'd hoped was coming to fetch his talkative ass but no such luck, she was there to join him (with a stinky lit cigarette in her hand, yuck). They were nice people, but a half hour of their uninvited, chatty company right after we'd arrived was a bit much! Anyway, a while after they left I said to BW, "I don't even like Scotch, but damn his drink looked good to me!" And BW said, "I thought so too!" And then together we said, "Let's get beer!!!" :-) Our site had no shade, Mr. and Mrs. Chatty Britches and the other camper having snagged the only two shady spots, and running our A/C really sucked the generator juice, so needing to get more fuel gave BW a great excuse to pick up some Fat Tire ale while he was at it. We enjoyed our simple meal on our new table (having ditched the heavy convertible table/bed platform that came with Girasole, installing bed rails and slats instead along with getting this lightweight folding table), by the light of our sweet new little 3-way LED lantern...

While we were noshing, BW remembered Girasole's stereo and jumped up to turn it on. It happened to be tuned to Sheridan's oldies station and he'd turned it on just as the chorus to Still the One was beginning! "We're still having fun after all these years…" :-) So of course we clinked our beer bottles and sang along! (And you can too, as I've put the video with lyrics at the bottom of this post!) :-)

It's all fun and games till a wicked thunderstorm that no one predicted appears overhead at 1am (a ghostly, meteorological anniversary reenactment of Connor's attack on the Arapaho, perhaps?) BW got up when he heard one of the dogs pawing at the fence (most likely Tess, who is terrified of thunderstorms), and that's when he saw all the lightning in our vicinity. A loud crack of thunder woke ME up, and the race was on. Willow and Josie can't safely or easily jump in or out of our Jeep anymore, so we bought this PetLoader a few weeks ago - best purchase we've made. But we had to get it untethered from the back of the Jeep and deploy it, put a harness on Willow (she still has bouts of vertigo and holding the top of the harness helps steady her as she uses the PetLoader steps), put collars and leashes on Tess and Josie, gather and shake off their beds and put them in the Jeep, and then load the girls - in the dark and the wind (luckily the rain held off), with lightning striking all around us and thunder crashing and banging overhead. Though our girls haven't used the PetLoader very often - and never under such challenging circumstances - they were real champs! Loaded right up and spent the rest of the night sleeping contentedly in the back of the Jeep. We rolled the windows down so they could catch the nice breeze, and although it rained most of the rest of the night we were all lucky that the inside of the Jeep stayed dry. I checked on them at 4 in the morning and wish I had a photo of our little angels snoring peacefully away, all lying with their butts touching in the middle of the Jeep with their bodies fanned out like flower petals. :-)

The next morning we had a muddy mess to contend with, but that's all part of the camping experience. It was chilly and overcast but the rain didn't resume, and as you can see in the reflection of Girasole's front window we even had a few tatters of blue sky flirt with us before it finally cleared up late that morning. I took photos of the pretty, chameleon-like sky and will share them as part of this week's SkyWatch post. Meanwhile, here is BW sipping his hot tea and being entertained by Willow's vain attempts to convince Tess it would be fun to mud-wrestle...

I'm pretty sure that packing up, getting there, unpacking and setting up camp, then tearing it down, repacking, driving home and cleaning everything up took longer than our actual camping did! :-) But it was a great experience and we are really looking forward to our next one, a much longer trek to northern Montana, a little later this month. We'll see if Girasole is "Still the One" and if "we're still having fun" after that adventure! :-)

SkyWatch Friday: The Skies of November

No gloomy November skies here! But then, we don't live on the Great Lake they call Gitche Gumee. So (with a nod to the incomparable Gordon Lightfoot's sad and haunting song), when the skies of November turned dreamy, I got out the camera and captured them as best I could. Here are some examples of our skies during our benevolent November…

Sunrise, 11/10

Same sunrise moments later

(these first two are a rerun from an earlier post, but I just had to include them!)

Pastel Sunrise, 11/16

Moonrise, 11/16

Sunset & Contrail, 11/17

Full Moon & Clouds, 11/17

Cotton Candy Sunset Clouds, 11/19

 "Fly south for winter - check!" :-)
Geese flying in checkmark formation, 11/24

Blazing Sunrise, 11/26

Dawn's Early Light, 11/27

In contrast to our mild and sunny November, December is predicted to greet us with a decidedly cold shoulder with snow and temps in the single and sub-zero digits most of next week. Ho-ho-oh-no! Oh well, we're grateful November's skies and weather played nice, and hope you enjoy gentle skies wherever you are!

And a very Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate it!

SkyWatch Friday: September's Skies

I suppose it's obvious from my lack of posts and my outdated springtime blog header and background that my fickle Blogging Muse continues her lengthy sabbatical (no doubt on a lovely tropical beach where she spends her days drinking piña coladas while cruelly snickering about how lazy and useless I am without her). But at least several of September's skies inspired me to haul out the camera and so they, at least, have provided a collection of sky photos to share. (So take that, fickle Blogging Muse - and I hope you get sunburn and sand fleas!) ;-)

August's heat continued into the first part of September, bringing us some more dramatic thunderstorms, like this one on the 6th...

And even when the skies remained summertime-blue, they've contained some interesting clouds, like this tidy row of little puffer-clouds I spied one afternoon that made me think of the "..." at the end of an unfinished thought, like the sky was saying, "to be continued..."!)

And a while later, the row of dots had turned into these italicized exclamation points!...

Though I did take some photos of the beautiful Harvest Moon on the 19th, they didn't turn out as SkyWatch-worthy as I'd hoped. But I did like the look of these moonlit clouds in my Friday the 13th photo!...

And of course, I can almost always count on a splendid sunrise...

That same sunrise last Sunday also illuminated this peculiar cloud that was hovering over the elementary school to our west, looking like a fluffy pink spaceship preparing to land on the roof...

Even when your creative muse is on vacation, 

inspiration always awaits in the beautiful sky photos on display at...

Here's hoping you enjoy a wonderful weekend!

And now for a little personal update, beginning once again with my apologies to my friends and blog followers for my lack of blogging and visiting/commenting (and especially for not continuing my vacation posts as promised!) While I continue to lay most of the blame on my delinquent Muse, there are other factors. An old injury to my hip and back has been causing pain and discomfort since July. Unfortunately, sitting for more than 15-20 minutes is one of the things that really aggravates it, and working on those vacation posts requires many hours of sitting (I tried blogging while standing up, but that just moves the pain to my neck and shoulders! I need a much taller desk!) :-) I'd been unable to get a massage since June so I finally got one on Tuesday. But my regular massage therapist isn't trained in the trigger point therapy that I need, so I'm going to try one who is on Monday.  I also have an appointment with an orthopedic doc on the 21st, in hopes he'll confirm the pain is due to my old injury and not something worse, and that he'll order some beneficial physical therapy like he did so successfully for BW's shoulder. 

A happier factor in my lack of internet time lately has been the absolutely beautiful weather we've been enjoying once August's heat finally left us! Bike rides and long walks with the dogs (I go easy on the bike but walks are wonderfully therapeutic) have replaced blogging and other internet activities. I reckon the vacation posts will make a great project for winter ~ a season I'd like to think is still at least a month or two off, but there is snow in our forecast today! Our gorgeous weather gave way on Wednesday to rain and temps that were 20º cooler, but now today's high will only be in the 40's and the rain is mixing with snow. A half inch of accumulation is possible and we're under a Winter Weather Advisory with temps forecast to drop below freezing tonight. Which means we'll have to cover our herb garden if we're to have any hope of enjoying the fresh organic herbs we've been so spoiled with all summer! I took this photo of it on Tuesday before the rains came...

L-R: Italian and African basil, lavendar, mint, thyme, and rosemary, 

all guarded by a cheerful brigade of marigolds. :-) 

The basil, about half of which is outside the frame of this photo, is especially abundant, and there are also three pepper plants in there that yielded a total of 4 bitty peppers. It's been wonderful to just step out the kitchen door to pluck fresh herbs, or to enjoy the fragrance of the basil and lavender flowers wafting through the kitchen windows (along with the summery sound of the buzzing bees that love feeding on them), and we aren't ready to give that up yet. So wish us luck in our endeavors to help our herb garden stay alive through the snow and the freeze!

Speaking of stayin' alive, I hope you'll enjoy this very cleverly edited video as much as I did! I think it makes a fun way to launch the weekend! :-)